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• sax
  sax

  noun

  saxophone.
• Sax.
  Sax.

  abbreviation

  Saxon.

sax

¹ American  

[saks] / sæks /

noun

Informal.

1. saxophone.

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sax ² American  

[saks] / sæks /

noun

1. a short, single-edged sword of ancient Scandinavia.

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Sax. ³ American  

abbreviation

1. Saxon.

2. Saxony.

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sax ¹ British  

/ sæks /

noun

1. a tool resembling a small axe, used for cutting roofing slate

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sax ² British  

/ sæks /

noun

1. informal short for saxophone

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Etymology

Origin of sax¹

By shortening

Origin of sax²

before 900; Middle English sexe, Old English seax, sæx; cognate with Old Norse sax ( Swedish, Danish sax scissors). See saw ¹

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sax Sax.

Derbez is now the lead singer, sax player and band manager of Diles Que No Me Maten: one of the most acclaimed indie bands to emerge from Mexico in the last decade.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

Ellington had introduced the work as a two-sided 78 in 1937, played it sporadically throughout the 1940s, and revived it in 1951, not long after Gonsalves joined the sax section.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

"Freedom Suite," led by Rollins' confident sax and also notable for Max Roach's drumming, proved controversial enough that a reissue chose another title for the album.

From Barron's ● May 26, 2026

I was hooked by the magisterial piano and sax solos of the epic “Jungleland,” set in a romanticized New York City—instantly my first favorite Bruce song.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025

Steady held the note for a long time, then made the sax drift away from the rest of the storm of music.

From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis

Borwe, Sax., is pledge or security, and to borrow is to secure.

From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 1 by William Carew Hazlitt

Cimb. as the ze and zi in zehol, zeol, ziol, Sax. are premised only as intensives, to add a little to the signification, and make it more emphatical.

From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 20, No. 582, December 22, 1832 by Various

Though the root-meaning seems rather that of clamminess or adhesiveness, as found in Sansc. limpas, Gr. λιπος, Lat. limus, Old Sax. lêmo, Mod.

From The River-Names of Europe by Robert Ferguson

The verb in the Sax. is hlystan, but in Su.-G. lyda, and Isl. hlyda, which approaches nearer to the form in the poem.

From The Lay of Havelok the Dane by Unknown

Rather, Mr. Turner says, from Sax. gradlie upright; gradely in Lanc., he observes, is an adjective simplifying everything respectable.

From Notes and Queries, Number 51, October 19, 1850 by Various

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